My 6 Most Effective Strategies for Marketing on Twitter

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past eight years, you’ll know that Twitter is a major player in lead generation. In this article i’m going to share with you the top 6 ways I’ve found to generate leads using Twitter.

To see how powerful Twitter is at generating leads lets look at a recent study from Quicksprout. Quicksprout found that 82% of leads generated from social media sites are referred from Twitter. This means that if you had a 1000 new leads in a month and 500 of those came from social media, 410 of those new leads came from Twitter.

Ready to get serious about using Twitter? Then read on.

1.) Drive Ebook Downloads Using Your Profile

Most marketers just use their Twitter profile to show off their branding, but it’s also a great place to cross-market your offers. I’ll show you how you can use your Twitter profile to generate downloads of your ebooks. I’ll also talk about what I did in the image below and other ways you could create yours.

The following are steps you can take to create a great Twitter profile to direct traffic to your ebook:

Add a subtle Call-to-action (CTA) using your Profile Picture and Banner in combination

In the profile picture use an image that directs the visitor to look at your banner which will contain your CTA.

For example, say your ebook was on Conversion Optimization. You could create a profile picture of yourself looking at a thought bubble above your head and have it read, “Increase your conversion rates now with my 25 secrets.” This will get people curious about what your 25 conversion secrets are and entice them to visit your page. When a visitor clicks on your profile picture a profile summary will pop-up showing the user the entire CTA.

Direct visitors to download your ebook using directional cues

When a user first clicks your profile and is brought to your profile page, they will need help locating your ebook. You can guide their eye using explicit and/or implicit directional signals that point towards your ebook.

Explicit: These cues are very direct and will clearly tell people exactly where they need to go. For example you could have an arrow in the banner pointing towards the link to download. Since I have already used the banner in the example above I have placed an arrow beside the download.

Implicit: These are subtle cues that will subconsciously guide the visitor in the direction they need to go. For example you could have an image of a person looking at your CTA or pointing to it.

Write a concise bio to promote the value of your ebook

In your biography section describe the purpose of your ebook and where they can download it. Following the example above, I have already told a visitor that my ebook contains my 25 conversion secrets. Now is when I can tell them what my ebook is about, “Conversion Optimization” and where to download their copy.

This example demonstrates value by telling the user how they can get the highest conversions and ROI. It uses the word “free” to show that there is minimal risk while directing the visitor to where they can get the ebook.

Keep your entire profile focused around your ebook in order to maximize the number of downloads. You want to have a bit of branding, but keep the focus on your ebook.

2.) Highjack trending hashtags to promote your content

Every time a hashtag is used in a Tweet it’ll be displayed on that hashtag feed. Trending hashtags appear on the left-hand side of the Twitter home page and are the result of a hashtag’s popularity on Twitter. If a certain hashtag is used a lot like #worldcup was during the World Cup, it’ll be displayed in the trending topics side-bar. Keep in mind that a lot of the trending hashtags are based around major news or interests, but they can be about anything.

Lets see how using a trending hashtag is great for your business - keep in mind that these hashtags should only be used if they are relevant.

Recently, there was a trending hashtag, #pizzaishealthy. If you search for this hashtag in the Twitter search bar you can find all of the Tweets related to this hashtag. It’s important when you use a trending hashtag to figure out how people are using it and how you can use it to your advantage.

The hashtag #pizzaishealthy would be great for two types of businesses:

First, and most obvious is a pizza place. You could Tweet some great healthy pizza options (and discounts) so that people would feel less guilty about eating pizza. For example, “We have some great new healthy pizza options for you because #pizzaishealthy at Frankie’s, buy 1 get 1 free.”

A second option is marketing your gym or health facility. “We all want to think #pizzaishealthy but if you need to work off that pizza come do it at Joe’s gym, introductory month only $30.”

You can use any of the trending topics to promote yourself or your business on Twitter. Just make sure the hashtag you use is related to your Tweet.

3.) Get your content seen by your target audience using industry hashtags

Say that you just published some great content and you want your target audience to find it. You could promote your content by posting short Tweets about key parts of your content and use industry hashtags to get it in front of the people who follow them.

An industry hashtag is one that people in a certain industry would follow, like #seo or #healthcare. Users on Twitter will specifically look for these hashtags because they are interested in the topic and want to read Tweets about this information. These industry hashtags are great to use because they’re already popular and can be applied to a large number of businesses.

I could use industry hashtags if I wrote a blog post on a topic like Google Hummingbird. To get my blog post shown to a large amount of users on Twitter I would strategically insert industry hashtags like #google and #hummingbird in my Tweet. This would mean that my blog post would be shown to all users searching for #google and #hummingbird.

I would post my Tweets with reference to the content in my blog to get users interested. I have some Tweets posted below that I would personally use to promote my Google Hummingbird blog post. In case you aren’t familiar with what Google Hummingbird is, here is a summary: In late 2013 Google released new algorithm software called Hummingbird that changed the way SEO works. Due to this update, it’s no longer relevant to insert as many keywords as you can, instead consider the person searching for you on Google.

Here are some ways I would use industry hashtags to Tweet about my Google Hummingbird blog post:

You can follow this same idea with any content that you’re Tweeting. Just make sure that your posts are varied so your following doesn’t feel like you’re just posting spam. It’s easy for this to happen because your Tweets will keep appearing in the same hashtag streams over and over. If you want to learn more about how to use effective hashtags click here.

4.) Use a contest to increase your following

A Twitter contest is a great way to interact with all users and convert them into followers or email leads. There are all types of contests and each one will be beneficial for capturing different information. For lead generation purposes I recommend using a sweepstakes. Just to let you know, you can easily make your own sweepstakes on Wishpond!

Here is my 5-step guide for creating your own Twitter sweepstakes:

Pick a prize: The prize should be relevant to your business, like a gift card. This will maximize the number of people interested in your prize as they can pick what they buy. Let users know what the prize is in your title, something like, “Win a $50 Gift Card!” Make sure you show an image of your prize to get people excited and provide all prizing information.

Choose an entry format: On the entry form ask for minimal contact information as this will help maximize sweepstakes entries. If you just ask for their email you can follow-up after and convert them into customers. Below the entry form you can add social share buttons so that entrants can share the contest with their friends.

Promote your sweepstakes: After you’ve created your sweepstakes you need to tell people its happening. So, send out an email blast to your email lists, promote your contest on other social networks, change the banner on your Twitter profile or create a Twitter Ad.

Keep monitoring your sweepstakes: You need to watch your sweepstakes platform analytics in order to see how many people are visiting and entering on your contest page. Wishpond has a great tool to track the success of your contest.

Follow up and promote: When your sweepstakes is over you still have work to do. Start by picking a winner and giving them the prize. You can then share who has won on your Twitter stream and other social media. Make sure you send a follow-up email (maybe even a consolation prize - like a 10% off next visit) and tell entrants about future sweepstakes you’ll be having.

Below I have shown an example of a sweepstakes that was created using Wishpond’s sweepstakes app.

This is a great sweepstakes for a few reasons: It has a clear and relevant prize, a “Summer Party Pack” which is full of goodies that can be bought at their business. They state what the total prize value is and what’s included. The form is simple, asking only for an email address which will lead to more entries. There are social share buttons at the bottom of the form which will make it easy for entrants to share the sweepstakes with friends.

5.) Use Twitter Lead Generation Cards

The Twitter Lead Generation Card does exactly as the name says; it captures leads. How effective is it at capturing leads? One of the original businesses that used the Lead Generation Card was able to generate over 1700 new emails in less than one week. They also saw an engagement rate of 4.6%, which is much higher than the average on Twitter of 1-3%.

So, how does it work? Basically the Lead Generation Card works like a mini-landing page. It’s an expandable Tweet that’s used to display your offer to interested users on Twitter. You’ll know they’re interested because your Lead Generation Card will be a promoted Tweet. Meaning that it’ll only be displayed to users who are interested in offers like yours. When a user clicks on the Tweet, they’re taken to an enlarged display of the offer. They’ll see what the offer is about and can claim it by clicking the button at the bottom. Their name, Twitter handle and email address will be sent directly to your business meaning no more lengthy forms.

What are some ways I can use the Lead Generation Card?

One way could be through establishing a pre-order list for a product. On your Lead Generation Card upload an image of the product and say “enter your email below to be the first to know when this product becomes available.” Interested buyers would enter their email and once the product is released you could email the list of buyers directly.

Another way to use the Lead Generation Card is by getting users to sign-up in exchange for valuable content like your ebook or newsletter. Once you have them as a lead, you can nurture them into a sale by providing more valuable content to your product.

Remember to follow up with all of your leads. If someone signs up as a lead through your Lead Generation Card and you don’t follow up with them, you may lose a potential customer.

6.) Target users interested in your product or business through mentions

You’ve probably already searched for users and businesses through the Twitter search bar. When you conduct your search like this you’re going to get an untargeted listing of results. Did you know that you can target your search to find users who are already searching for similar products and businesses to yours? Using advanced search operators within your search term will ensure that the results are relevant and useful to you. Lets see how this works below.

You can search for specific mentions to or from a Twitter handle. This is useful in two ways. First because you can see who is having conversations already and target these users by offering your own products or services. You can also find out what customers already like or don’t like about a competitor’s product or service and make yours better.

You will use this function by adding the operators to: or from: before your search term. The to: operator will show all Tweets sent to that user. The from: operator will show all Tweets sent from. So for example, say I owned a coffee shop. I would look up a similar business to mine, lets use Starbucks. I would first search for all users who have mentioned Starbucks by typing in this, to:starbucks. The results are as follows:

The result is a list of users who have specifically mentioned Starbucks in their Tweet. You can see what users think about Starbucks and see what you can improve in your own business.

You could also search for from:starbucks as this will show all Tweets sent from the user. You will be able to see who Starbucks is already having a conversation with and start your own conversation with these users.

Conclusion

Twitter is a fantastic social media tool and can be used to generate quality leads when used properly.

I hope these 7 tips will give you an edge in making the most of your Tweets.

What are your tips for using Twitter in your marketing strategy? Join in on the conversation below.